Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Poignant Reflection on Fleeting Beauty 🌸

O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet! <br />How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs? <br />I only ask to sit beside thy feet. <br />Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes. <br />Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not fold <br />My arms about thee--scarcely dare to speak. <br />And nothing seems to me so wild and bold, <br />As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek. <br />Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control <br />Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat <br />The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke, <br />The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soul <br />To tremble like a lute string, ere the note <br />Hath melted in the silence that it broke.<br /><br />Alfred Lord Tennyson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/o-beauty-passing-beauty/